forced upon him, that he could only answer by an inward shudder
of repulsion.

"You are not a man to change in anything," continued the General. "You
loved the woman once--I knew it at the time."

"Knew it, and yet married her!" cried James, with bitterness.

"You seemed to be playing a dog in the manger part--this might do for
young fellows who were too timid for speech, or too certain for doubt.
The lady was young, beautiful, rich, and appeared to give me the
preference. You did not speak. I did; that is all."

"I was not selfishly silent, sir. Before my mother's unhappy death, I
was dependent entirely on her bounty, and that you controlled. Mabel was
an heiress. I was not mercenary, and hesitated to appear so. My mother
loved her. She was very young, and your ward. It would have seemed like
taking an unfair advantage of her inexperience, had I used my mother's
hospitality as a means of reaching her favor. After that came a more
painful reason for silence."

"And what was that, sir?" demanded the General, sharply.

"I learned that her fortune had disappeared; that, large as it was, her
guardian, unable to control more than the income of his wife's property,
had staked this poor orphan's wealth at the gaming-table, and lost it."

General Harrington half rose from his chair, and sat down again, looking
at James in pale astonishment.

"To have declared my love under circumstances so disgraceful to my
family, would have been to expose you, sir, both to my gentle mother and
to the world. The will which gave Mabel her wealth, provided that a full
settlement should be made on the day of her marriage. I had not the
courage to hurry on an event that would brand my mother's husband with
dishonor."

Still the General sat mute and pale, looking steadfastly on the floor;
he seemed for a time unconscious that James had ceased to speak, but at
last raising his head slowly, he cast a look that was almost fiendish on
the younger Harrington.

"Go on, go on!" he said, hoarsely.

"I will, sir! Heaven knows it was my wish to bury this secret forever,
but you force me to speak. My poor mother's sickness added new pain to
my unhappy situation; she died"----

"And left me a beggar--you a rich man!" said the General, hoarsely. "I
have not forgotten it!"

"Then," continued James, "I was free to marry the lady on equal
terms--free to replace her fortune from my own inheritance, and keep
your secret still from her knowledge--but